Sunday, November 8, 2009

Photos from Minnesota Trip 1

Along the way, I took some photos of where we were, what we did, and what I ate.We stayed across the street from this cheese shop in Wisconsin. If you do not know, WI is known as "America's Dairyland" and is well known for cheese. Many call them "cheeseheads" affectionately. ;-) It really is too bad I do not like much cheese, as this would have been a great taste sampler. Here is my story of my cheese aversion if you have not read it yet.

In Minnesota, however, I did eat this wonderful veggie pizza from Pizza Luce. They use Rinotta as a substitute for cheese which is made from nuts. This place really catered to vegetarians and vegans, including gluten-free items, "mock duck, chicken, and sausage," and plenty of vegetables.

While in MN, how could you not stop by Mall of America, the largest mall in the US. It is quite huge with four levels, 400 stores, a large movie theater, and an amusement park in the center. The stores are mostly chain type, so nothing real specialized. I wasn't that impressed to be honest.

On the fourth floor, the Bodies Exhibit was there. It truly was pretty amazing to see the inner parts of an entire body from head to toe. I had forgotten until looking up the website that there has been a huge amount of controversy about the "ethics" of how these bodies were produced and are shown. Wikipedia does a nice job of outlining the controversy of the various body exhibits around the world. I somehow feel slightly guilty now as I am all about obtaining and preserving cadavers in appropriate ways, as well as giving consent.

Lastly, here are a few pictures of Baxter post-surgery. As you can see there are two incisions. The small one is where they had to take part of the zygomatic arch out in order to get to the tumor better. The large incision is where they had to cut to remove the tumor. It is like a flap, and luckily, they did not have to take out bone. Therefore, they were able to reclose the flap, otherwise, it would have been open. He still has some swelling on the left side but it does seem to be slightly better. His sight in his right eye is not there yet, therefore, he keeps doing left turns. His hearing is also not there completely. All of these symptoms should be transient, so I'm hoping within a week or two, they will have dissolved. The point at the back of his head is simply from loss of muscle. I'm presuming that and the more prominence of his spine are old age-related, at least that is my hope.

I keep saying with his head shaved, he looks more "Boxerish." My dad just says, "he looks like he has had brain surgery." I'll post other pictures as he is healing. The next two weeks are crucial in making sure he gets rest, is not very active, gets all his meds, etc. Then, his sutures will be taken out, and he will get his first dose of vaccine.

Oh yeah, and poor Baxter, had several other shaved spots on his body from the IVs and heart monitoring, etc. It will probably take a good 3-6 months or more for his fur to all grow back. Maybe he'll let me put more sweaters on him? :grin: